1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preparing a bean curd and, more particularly, to a method for preparing a bean curd containing pine leaves wherein powder of pine leaves is incorporated into the bean curd such that the bean curd gives out the nice fragrance of the pine leaves and man who eats the bean curd can intake all kinds of nutrients contained in the bean curd such as amino acids, minerals, vitamins and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bean curd is one of the traditional foods made of unmixed beans that has been handed down from generations and is very nutritious with proteins extracted out of bean components. Such a bean curd has been enjoyed regardless of sex and age up to today because it leaves a clean aftertaste with a high value of nutrition and contains no cholesterol as a healthful food which is preventive of arteriosclerosis and other geriatric diseases such as hypertension, cardiac disorder, diabetes and the like.
In the preparation of a bean curd, beans kept soaked in water are smashed with water, boiled in a pot or kettle and filtered with a filter net or filter bed to separate into bean-curd juice and lees. An addition of salt water to the bean-curd juice causes coagulation of the bean-curd juice into a bean curd.
Pine leaves have been known as one of the medical stuffs and foods as well as relief famine plants, and especially have been used as a spice in all sorts of foods.
A recent biochemical analysis for the pine leaves shows that pine leaves are composed of various nutrients (per 100 grams of pine leaves) as listed in the following table for the food compositions prepared by the rural nutrition improvement workshop of the Korean Rural Development Office.
TABLE ______________________________________ Energy (kcal) 132 Water (%) 58.1 Protein (g) 4.5 Fat (g) 3.9 Carbohydrate (saccharide) (g) 19.6 Carbohydrate (fibroid material) (g) 13.3 Lime (g) 0.6 Calcium (mg) 61 Phosphor (mg) 51 Iron (mg) 3.7 Vitamin A (I.U) 5.165 Thiamin (mg) 0.7 Riboflavin (mg) 0.16 Niacin (mg) 0.2 Ascorbic acid (mg) 29 ______________________________________
In addition to the above nutrients as listed in the table, the pine leaves are also well-known to contain other minerals and medical components such as a component for dissolving calcium which is effective in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, glycokinin which is effective for diabetes, abietic acid detoxicating opium or nicotine, and terpene which lowers the level of cholesterol in blood and highly effects as a vasodilator and a hormone secretion stimulator.
As described above, bean curds and pine leaves contain nutrients and medical components which are beneficial to health, and accordingly, can be used as healthful foods.
However, bean curds and pine leaves take only nutritious components of their own and thus involve a problem in that we have to separately intake the other components which do not exist in each other. In particular, although pine leaves emit a good smell and contain efficient nutritious and medical components, we have not developed a technique for taking them with good taste and maximizing their nutritious and medical effects upon our bodies as beneficial foods to health such that we cannot make efficient use for foods of pine trees which are most widely spread in the whole land in Korea.